This is the first article in a series profiling schools that would be affected by a Kalispell Public Schools high school bond request. Ballots will be mailed out Sept. 19 and are due Oct. 4.

Despite providing an educational experience that remains strong, the building holding roughly 1,450 Flathead High School students continues to weaken.

Educatingstudents in a building that is safe, secure, accessible and functional is why the bulk of a $28,766,000 high school district bond request is earmarked for Flathead.

The oldest part of Flathead High School was built in 1910; the last time the building was significantly remodeled was a commons area addition completed in 2007.

Since then, building levies have been requested and rejected as the list of deferred maintenance projects outpaces short-term repairs to keep things operating.

On Sept. 8, Flathead administrators gave a tour of the aging building into areas that are out of the public eye, but visible to students every day. The daily wear and tear from the ceiling down to the floor is not hard to miss.

One concerning area is the textured ceiling containing asbestos on the first floor. In a couple of spots, Flathead Principal Peter Fusaro pointed to scrapes left by people who apparently jumped up to touch the ceiling.

“Right now it doesn’t pose any health risks, you know, to the students with that up there — unless they’re messing with it,” Fusaro said.

An adjoining ceiling that was part of the commons addition has had the asbestos abated. Yet after nearly nine years, even it shows age with several water stains.

“We can cosmetically fix things, but you know when what’s underneath is [failing it’s] going to come back out eventually sooner rather than later,” Flathead Assistant Principal Michele Paine said.

Fusaro, Paine and Assistant Principal Mike Lincoln led the tour through the weight room and into what used to be the district central kitchen until a new one was built and completed in 2014.

All that remains of the kitchen are painted outlines where ovens and refrigerators used to be. The former kitchen is now being used to store miscellaneous athletic equipment. In a school surrounded by residential neighborhood, it’s prime real estate that is pretty much going to waste. If the bond request passes, the former kitchen could be opened up to become a cardio room.

“Our campus is very small. We’re surrounded by houses and neighborhoods, so we can’t expand outward — we have to really look at the space we currently have and make the best use 100 percent of it. You can see right here we’re not using the space as we could,” Paine said.

Would building a new high school be easier?

That was considered during Kalispell Public School’s facility planning process. Planners had noted the challenge in altering Flathead’s piecemeal construction over the decades into a 21st-century school, but the price tag of constructing a new school was deemed too much by committee members.

One option presented to the committee was building a new high school and remodeling the existing building into a middle school.

That would have raised both the high school and elementary bond requests to more than $96 million — as opposed to the $54 million total being sought.

In the meantime, Flathead students and staffers in building trades classes have pitched in to help out in attempts to alter the former kitchen and staff offices to something usable by doing demolition work and putting up a wall.

With classes underway, however, improvements are going slowly.

Beyond the wall a shower room was built for visiting sports teams, but past the shower room students have to walk into a room in mid-demolition. Chunks of drywall are piled around the wooden wall frame of what used to be an office for kitchen staff. If the bond request passes, it could become locker rooms for visiting teams.

“This is the current reality,” Fusaro said. “So you know any time we host the Western B, or we have Crosstown, or we host other schools, this is the alternative shower room. So we’re trying to get it cleaned up. Obviously it takes a little time, it takes a little money. We use it. We have to.”

Paine summed up the theme of construction needs: “We could make so much better use of space.”

Flathead also lost square footage this year when the welding program that serves both Flathead and Glacier high school students was moved from Flathead Valley Community College back to a district facility.

Inside Flathead’s shop building behind the main school building, 15 welding booths for beginning students have been set up. Crowding and safety are definite concerns in the shop now, Fusaro said. There can be up to 70 students at one time sharing the shop and operating machinery while they learn welding, auto body work and computer-aided design.

“As part of the bond, the solution is to move welding to the ag center,” Fusaro said.

Administrators then walked back across the street to the small gym, one of the oldest parts of the building in addition to the school’s infamous “half floors.”

The small gym is slated for demolition if the bond passes. Inside, a volleyball match is underway. Ceiling tiles above are broken or hanging loosely. The “lock” on a unisex restroom is a piece of paper taped to the door that reads “open” or “closed.” Inside the restroom, there are two toilets with no separating wall.

After the volleyball match, students make their way up an old wooden staircase to a track that is enclosed by black railings and chain link fencing. The gym is not wheelchair-accessible.

Paine remarked that the newer gym inside the main building was built to replace this crumbling gym.

“They knew in the ’50s this was outdated and obsolete, so really it’s been 65 years since we decided that this gym was outdated, yet day in and day out the P.E. classes are here all day long. We have basketball and volleyball teams practicing here, community groups, the Little Dribblers [and] parks and rec programs,” Paine said. “We’re saying it’s time. It’s time for that upgrade.”

The old gym would be replaced by an auxiliary gym connected to the main building.

Another portion of the high school that would be demolished involves the half floors where nine classrooms and a lecture room are located. Like the small gym, none of the rooms are wheelchair-accessible or compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Because of this, entire classes have to swap classrooms if a student can’t access the half floors. This happened last year, Fusaro said.

Math teacher Ross Gustafson’s classroom is located on the half floors.

“Today’s a cool day. It was 89 degrees at 7:30 in the morning. Right now we’re in a nice spot. In January and December it will be chilly,” Gustafson said.

A dry-erase board strategically covers a row of windows that were boarded up with insulated coverings some time in the 1980s. His windows are among many boarded up as a cheap alternative to replacing energy-inefficient windows. Fusaro said that was common practice and noted that the insulated coverings aren’t a long-term fix because birds continue to bore holes into the material to nest.

All the school’s single pane windows would be replaced under the renovation plan.

In the hallway, Paine pointed to a couple of tables and chairs. This is an attempt at 21st-century learning, Paine said — flexible breakout areas outside the classroom where students can collaborate in small groups or one-on-one.

At one end of the hallway, Lincoln opened the door to an enclosed stairwell that winds out of view from staff members.

“It’s very hard to monitor these old stairwells,” Lincoln said.

Overall, the renovations could allow for 150 more students at Flathead.

Expanding parking by 110 spaces is also part of the proposal, but would require purchasing neighboring homes, if they became available, and demolishing them.

While up to $19 million may go to Flathead, remodeling also is slated for Linderman Education Center, H.E. Robinson Agricultural Education Center and Legends Stadium. Deferred maintenance only would be completed at Glacier.

If the $28.8 million high school bond request is approved, owners of homes with assessed values of $200,000 could anticipate property taxes to increase by $58.46 annually.

Voters on the high school district bond issue include residents of Kalispell and outlying partner school districts — Kila, Marion, Smith Valley, West Valley, Evergreen, Helena Flats, Somers-Lakeside, Creston, Fair-Mont-Egan, Cayuse Prairie, Deer Park, Olney-Bissell and Pleasant Valley — whose students attend Flathead or Glacier high schools.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.